FM10 - From the Bottom Up

[Radii]

-- My assistant coach Tony Coton retires.

June Update

-- The board is delighted with my leadership thanks to winning the FA Cup

-- We made $59.2M in profit last month.

New Contract

Yuri Di Giuseppe is given a $7 million signing bonus and $170,000/wk to stay with Ipswich for the next 4 full seasons (until the end of the 2032 season). As soon as I did the roster/contract review in my last post I wanted to see if I could lock him up long term. No need to wait for the new season, just pay this man what he wants and see where the rest of our budget falls at the start of next year.


Re-signing Di Giuseppe does put me over budget and I may not be able to sign an Assistant until July as a result.


-- DR Clive Jackson says he has "been here too long" and wants a new challenge. Maybe that's the reason for his morale problems at times last year. I respond publicly and tell him that I intend to keep him. Heywood is good but I really like the combination of Heywood and Jackson at DR, affordable and effective.

-- Jackson responds publicly and says he was wrong to want to leave and that I persuaded him to want to stay.

-- The same thing happens with Jack Hughes, he's more of a backup but I try the same tactic with my response.

-- I lose coach Steve Taylor to Blackburn. I'll need to hire multiple new coaches when July rolls around and my players come back.



European Club Rankings

Ipswich have moved up 12 places to 9th in Europe! Not many teams in Europe earned more points than we did last year.

1. Inter - 158.345 (unchanged)
2. At. Madrid - 150.346 (+4)
3. Arsenal - 150.143 (-1)
4. Man City - 146.143 (-2)
5. OM - 144.679 (-1)
6. Barcelona - 142.346 (unchanged)
7. Olympique Lyonnais - 133.679 (+3)
8. Genoa - 132.348 (unranked)
9. Ipswich - 127.144 (unranked)
10. Real Madrid - 125.346 (unranked)

We have a terrible season about to fall off next year, four really really strong seasons allowing us in the top 10. If we have another good showing in Europe next year we'll easily move into the top 5. Making the finals of the Champions League could see us reasonably jump to #1 in Europe.

[Radii]

-- I notice a news announcement that Huddersfield open a new stadium. They averaged about 25.5k attendance last year and are moving to a 35.8k stadium, that will be huge for them. With 4 top 10 finishes in the EPL (including a 3rd, 4th and 5th) we're really the only team that's risen up against the big boys more than them.


Ipswich Fans Player of the Year

I wondered about a tossup here between Di Giuseppe or giving a nod to Constantino for having another great year as a fan favorite. But nope, Yuri Di Giuseppe is the fans player of the year.


Ipswich Best Eleven

GK: Bogdanovs
D: Kirkland/Mattle/Aldrovandi/Heywood
M: Crespo/Smith/Ros/Gordon
F: Di Giuseppe/Constantino

Ros was a situational pick, exclusively an ML, only put in situations where he could succeed. Steven Mills was the only right option at MC next to Smith.


Ipswich All-Time Best Eleven


GK: Michele Capitani (203 apps/6.99 rating)
DL: Stuart Kirkland (433 apps/7.17 rating)
DC: Otmar Mattle (215 apps/6.99 rating)
DC: Carlos Aldrovandi (188 apps/7.00)
DR: David Wright (166 apps/2 goals/7.11 rating)
ML: Mario Licka (115 apps/8 goals/7.23 rating)
MC: Craig Smith (145 apps/12 goals/7.16 rating)
MC: Steven Mills (296 apps/20 goals/7.10 rating)
MR: Neil Gordon (393 apps/96 goals/7.05 rating)
ST: Constantino (398 apps/283 goals/7.50 rating)
ST: Chris Bryan (169 apps/72 goals/7.19 rating)

Chris Bryan overtakes Matthew Khan surprisingly quickly (Khan has 143 career goals for Ipswich). Craig Smith takes over at MC for Gordon Donnolly, another surprise as Donnolly has 342 matches played for Ipswich and was a huge fan favorite when he left. Other active players off the bench for this all time team are Clive Jackson and Dmitrijs Bogdanovs. Bogdanovs should overtake Capitani next year.

Stuart Kirkland has 433 matches played for us, but the all time record for the team is 591... and the 591 is league matches. Kirkland's is total, only 350 league matches. He just turned 28, that 591 is probably unbreakable with the smaller number of league matches every year in the EPL, I haven't had a tendency to play players into their mid 30s so far in this career.


League Schedule Announced

As FA Cup winners we play Arsenal in the Community Shield on August 8th in a match we won't give much effort in.

Dates to circle (until they get moved over and over of course) on the calendar:

8/17: vs Arsenal
8/21: @ Man City
10/30: vs Man Utd
12/14: @Chelsea
12/28: @ Arsenal
1/1: vs Man City
2/26: @Man Utd
4/22: vs Chelsea

-- We get our standard $48.51M for EPL TV Rights

Start of Season Expectations

-- The minimum we can shoot for is making the Champions League. This would give us $68M in transfer money and $1.7M in payroll. We sit at $1.625M in payroll right now. Challenging for the EPL title $83M/$1.9M budget. I tend to stay on the low end of my allowed expectations but man I don't want to have to lower my budget to be able to take on any new players, and two seasons in a row we've finished within 1 point of the EPL title.

I tell the board we are going to challenge for the EPL title, granting us $83 Million to spend and $1.9M p/w in payroll. This will let us go a little nuts trying to bring in a big player or two


Youth Intake

I haven't really been impressed with what's come out of our farm system (or at least how we've been training up our youth players, its feels like my old impressions with OOTP, if you can get 5% of your guys to the big leagues, good job!)

This year the youth pulls are especially bad, not a single one with more than 1 1/2* potential and they all get cut. Maybe iwth the extra money this year I try to buy a couple more youth guys.


Preseason Coaches Meeting

We still need to hire some coaches but the ones we do have get together to talk about the team. One of my coaches recommends a MC, DR and ST to me... telling me that "we're weak in front of goal" so we need a new striker. I should probably fire that guy immediately, I dunno if Di Giuseppe has a temper off the pitch or not but I hope he doesn't hear about that report.

-- We have one of the most aggressive teams and some of the best concentration in the EPL. Our squad is the single most determined squad in the league. Height and Flair are the only two things seen as weaknesses. Fitness/passing/technique/strength and of course speed are all near the top of the league.

[Radii]

Title Odds

Man City are named heavy favorites this year at 2:1 to win the EPL. Arsenal 5:1, Ipswich 16:1, Chelsea 16:1, Sunderland 25:1, Man Utd 33:1.

Sunderland is a name that came out of nowhere here. They've fallen to the Championship twice in the last 7 years. Two years ago they won the Championship, last year they finished 11th in the EPL, a jump into the top 5 would be huge for them.

I'm thrilled to see us picked 3rd, but would like better than 16:1 odds to win it all after our last two seasons!


Coach Hiring

Won't go into a lot of detail here but as soon as we get our budget for the new year I stop everything to get our staff in place. I look for an assistant right away, going after the same guy I tried to hire in May but didn't have the money for. The coach that left us was my set pieces trainer. Additionally, our Aerobic coach is only 3 1/2*, everything else on the senior squad is at least 4*, so I wouldn't mind replacing that.


-- We sign a new assistant, not spectacular but pretty solid across the board. 14 determination, 14 discipline, 15 motivation, 16 judging ability, 17 man management.

-- We sign a 4* set pieces coach. No luck finding someone easily who I am sure would be a better fitness coach.



Some of the initial scout recommendations were for incredibly good players, next step will be to do my initial look through the league for potential transfers. MR is the only huge priority right now.

[Radii]

-- Three super high quality players initially found by my scouts get a real close look. One is a superstar ST that would probably cost most of my budget but might give me a striker combo as strong as that of Arsenal. One is a DR way way better than Heywood and Jackson. Another is a MC in line with our best mids. The MC is the toughest position for me right now when I see high quality players. Smith and Jean and Mills and Connolly are all very very good players, but I don't really consider them superstars. Its hard for me to spot someone though and say "oh yeah, I gotta have this guy even if it knocks one of my guys off the depth chart".

I also look through unhappy players in the EPL and make a couple offers.

Exeter has a fairly solid looking MR that I decide to go after.


-- Exeter accepts our first/default offer of $6M for a 29 y/o MR, I offer him a contract, with his age he won't be a replacement for Neil Gordon but gets us by for another year or two perhaps.


Wealth List

Our success last year helped our wealth greatly, we move up from 42nd to 23rd in the list of the wealthiest squads in the world. We're valued at $228 Million now.

Inter are #1 at $1.06 Billion with a B. FC Bayern $716M, Barcelona $671M, Rela Madrid $665M, OM $596M to round out the top 5.

In England:

Arsenal $507M
Man City $422M
Man Utd $351M
Chelsea $313M


Players Released

Dariusz Chrzanowski leaves for Cagliari. We bought him for $2 Million from Tottenham back in the 23/24 season. He was a very solid backup/spot starter behind Neil Gordon at MR, playing in 72 matches in 3 1/2 seasons, scoring 7 goals and averaging a rating around 6.90. He just wasn't happy being a backup/spot starter, so we had to let him go. Two of the high value targets I'm bidding for are with Cagliari right now, which doesn't really mean anything, but meh.

-- GK Michele Capitani wasn't retained and leaves the club. We bought him for $4 Million from Liverpool at the start of the 20/21 season. He was my everyday starter for 4 years averaging just under a 7.0 rating in league play. Bogdanovs took over though and has been a great starter for us since I picked him up. He was a critical player during his 4 years though, helping see us to 3 top 10 EPL finishes and our first ever Champions League berth.

-- Finally ML Adagsmar leaves the team at age 32 without a new contract. We bought him from Wolverhampton for $4.2 Million at the same time we bought Capitani. He started some, sat behind Crespo as a backup once I picked him up but has always had a role on the team. He put up a rating over 7 four times in his seven years with Ipswich, scoring 18 goals and netting 12 assists in 128 career matches for us.


July Update

-- We officially hit July, and the board is pleased with my leadership. Our increase in stature is the highlight, the departure of GK Capitani is a negative. We lost $9.3M last month.


-- We had made an offer to very unhappy Aston Villa ST Simon Greenhouse, a fairly solid 24 y/o, but I wasn't willing to pay him a lot and there was stiff competition for him. He chooses to go to Sunderland.


-- 29 y/o DR Leonardo Olivieri from Cagliari has been a heavy target of mine so far this year. I've made offer after offer, finally they say "fine, you want him, give us $57 Million" ... he's SO much better than our DR's.. but he's also turning 30 this season. Spending nearly $60 Million on him would be a "win now" statement of epic proportions. I was, FYI, offering $28 Million and considered it a perfectly fair price. I'm not willing to pay $57 M. I sit on him for awhile, someone I may offer more for later but for now we look elsewhere.

[Radii]

New Signing

Welcome 27 y/o MR Ruben Garcia Mut to Ipswich! I think I mentioned him as a 29 y/o earlier but he's actually just 27 now. We pay $6 Million to Exeter and will be paying Garcia Mut $63,000/wk. My scouts vary on him rating him anywhere from a 2* to 3 1/2* player.

Pace 16/Accel 11, Stamina 17, other fitness ratings in the 13-15 range. Anticipation 16, Teamwork/Work Rate 15, everything else in Mental in the 10-14 range, except for Aggression which is a really crazy low 3. Scared of his shadow maybe and we'll see what happens with that. Technically we're happy with what we see, 16 passing, 14 technique, 15 crossing, 15 dribbling, 13 first touch. Most other ratings are a bit lower but he's perfectly solid in key areas.

Garcia Mut has been with Exeter for 8 seasons. 4 of the last 5 have been in the EPL. 6.88 in 24 matches 2 years ago, 7.05 in 18 matches last year. I expect him to fill the exact same role Chrzanowski filled, perhaps playing a little more if Neil Gordon starts showing his age this season and slows a bit.


Friendly #1

We host German top side Dortmund. A scoreless first half, second half a cross from Ros to Darcy gets us on the board. Di Giuseppe cross/Darcy header generate a second goal. Di Giuseppe to Garcia Mut for a 3rd goal. Di Giuseppe a 3rd assist, Darcy a 3rd headed goal late.

Ipswich 4 : 0 Dortmund

Injury Update

DR Anthony Heywood is out 2-3 weeks with a hamstring injury. He'll be around for the start of the year but these short term pre-season injuries tend to severely delay the process of getting into shape to be able to go full speed.

Jack Hughes and Brett Connolly were also both hurt this game. Hughes only out 2-3 days, Connolly is fine. Whew, that could have been a lot lot worse.



-- The first offer for one of our players come in, we reject a $13.5M offer for Connolly from Cagliari.



-- I keep making offers on Cagliari's superstar striker, picturing an up front force that matches the famed Bugra Yildirim/Hans Nooij pairing with Arsenal. I end up getting a shot at my guy for $60 Million, but he wants a salary of $275k/wk and we're just not there yet. I am actually able to offer $230k/wk and I try to offer that + incentives but no deal. That's fine, but I would have done it.


Transfer News

-- A few days later I see what I can do with Cagliari's star DR... I can get him for $40 Million.. and $230k/wk. DR is my weakest position, though I *like* Heywood and Jackson, I think its my weakest starting spot on most days, its the biggest upgrade I can make for my team... but its a TON to spend for a defender that will turn 30 this year.

His defensive stats are awesome, good enough speed, good strength, great stamina, 18 decision making/18 positioning/19 concentration, 18 marking/17 tackling.

I delay for a week, my gut tells me this is the "big move" for this year, but I'm just a little unsure and I'm going to give it a week.

[Radii]

-- Roma offer me $32.5M for GK Dmitrijs Bogdanovs. He's literally indispensable at this point, there is no offer I would accept for him.


Friendly #2

We host Austria Wien, a team we played a few years ago in one of our european cup runs.

Ipswich 0 : 0 Austria Wien

-- Its a weaker performance today, but no one gets hurt either.



Player Transfer

During the week where I'm delaying my offer for Cagliari's DR I look at other players and see if I can find something I'm happier with. I end up giving up more for a player just as old... but he's even better.

Its a rare deal with players included, a true prospects for veteran type of deal, and a rare deal between two top sides in the same nation.

Man Utd gets:

19 y/o DC John Ashworth - valued $2.5M
19 y/o ST Frank Battersby - valued $3.7M
$41 Million

that's a TON. I don't *think* either one would ever be full time starters for me. Battersby is the better player but I am really young at forward outside of Constantino. Ashworth could have come into the rotation soon. And of course $41 Million...


Ipswich Gets:

Welcome 29 y/o DR Clive Hayward to Ipswich from Manchester United. Hayward will make $190,000/wk for 3 years. Like the other deal I was looking at, its *absolutely* a win now deal. The reason I make this one instead of the one for DR Olivieri for Cagliari is that this seems like a guarenteed success by comparison. He's a different type of defender, but his proven results in england for the last decade are too much to pass up.

16 pace/17 accel/20 stamina/17 strength, way better all around athlete for Hayward.

16 decisions/15 positioning/14 anticipation/17 concentration ... other stats in the 13-16 range. All around is better than Olivieri though a couple key ratings slightly lower.

14 marking/16 tackling/14 dribbling/15 technique - slightly worse defensive technical skills but strong overall, better in the air than Olivieri, and much much better sending the ball forward and helping the offense.


Its the results that sway the decision to be honest. Olivieri had a history of 6.8-6.9 ratings in Holland, France and Italy. Hayward has 5 years of 7.15+ ratings for Man Utd, playing in this league against the same competition.

I'm not sure how important this should be but Olivieri has 8 caps for Italy while Hayward has 48 for England.

Like in many other recent years, I'm not sure I made the perfect decision here. giving up Ashworth when many of my DC's are starting to get a bit older is my biggest worry as far as giving up hot prospects for veteran talent, the money is no big thing.

All of that said, this is a HUGE upgrade over Jackson and Heywood at DR, there can be no doubting that at all, and that's that.

[SirFozzie]

Interesting.

I was going to ask you were doing on english players, but I then remembered that FM10 doesn't have the new rules on english rosters I think that I know are in FM12. (25 over 21 players, and at least 8 players trained at a team in england)

[Radii]

Originally Posted by SirFozzie

Interesting.

I was going to ask you were doing on english players, but I then remembered that FM10 doesn't have the new rules on english rosters I think that I know are in FM12. (25 over 21 players, and at least 8 players trained at a team in england)

Those rules exist in FM10 too. I'm at 24/25 players given squad numbers (with DC Olvera and GK Lines still under 21 at the age limit), and have 14 players trained in England. I think I need 4 trained at the club as well for European play and I'm well above that number, I want to say I'm at 8 or so?

[Radii]

We still have $33 Million available for player transfers. I have no immediate prospects on which to spend that money. Looking to replenish our youth talent is something we'll be looking at there.

-- I'm offered the Argentina national job, wow! But no.


Friendly #3

We play French Olympique Lyonnais, a scoreless first half with the starting lineups, the starters stay in until around the 60 minute mark this match. Still scoreless at that point, but we get a goal as Garcia Mut takes a corner and DC Olvera heads it in late.

Olympique Lyonnais 0 : 1 Ipswich



Injury Update

ST Di Giuseppe is out about 10 days, but hopefully we've had enough time here that he'll be fully ready for the season.



Contract Update

Time to go through this year's expiring contracts:

ST Constantino - Turns 33 this year. We'll wait to offer him, he's definitely falling off, I'll tend towards keeping him if its a close call at all though.

MR Neil Gordon - Turns 32 this year. He'll take a bit of a pay cut to extend out a year, I offer it. Gordon's brilliant crossing rating took a bit of a hit recently, he could start to drop a bit, but he's rated so well, he'll be fine for a bit still I think.

DC Jose Antonio Ballester - Turns 32 this year. Unlike Constantino/Gordon, Ballester makes $91,000/wk and I'm just not convinced he's going to remain worth that much. He's not starting consistently, this may be it for him for Ipswich.

MC Steven Mills - Makes $86k/wk now, will take a small cut to $81k/wk. He turns 31 this year, an easy guy to keep, he may start a little less as we see Connolly start more frequently, but I want him.

DC Carlos Aldrovandi - Turns 32 this year, we haven't really seen him dropping much yet, he'll take a pay cut to extend (and get a bonus). Easy offer.

DL Stuart Kirkland - Turns 29 this year. He wants a 1 year extension at the same rate ($70k/wk), I give him a little bigger bonus to try to get a 2 year extension instead.

DL/ML Jack Hughes - He wants to play for me more than he wants to be rich. Wants $27,000/wk and 3 additional years. I was debating whether to offer him or not... but that's a no brainer for the depth he offers.

ST Chris Bryan - He gets what he wants, duh. Only 24.

ST Eoin Darcy - Also gets what he wants, duh. Only 23. Darcy and Bryan neither wanted huge raises, just reasonable bonuses and multi-year extensions.

MC Craig Smith - Only 22, and he isn't asking for as much as I thought either, he's willing to go into his mid 20s still making just $27k/wk.

GK Rob Lines - backup GK, only 21, we keep him around since we need a backup.

ML David Ros - Moves up to $12.5k/wk, only 21, Ros will get a lot of time at ML as Crespo's backup this year and we'll really learn what we've got here.

DC Pablo Olvera - He's ok, only 20, I was giving Ashworth preference before trading him to Man Utd, Olvera gets an extension here and will get a bit more of a chance this year.



We've still got a lot of very young players, but we do have a lot of key guys that are on the downside of their careers now, Gordon, Aldrovandi, Mills, Constantino, Ballester all in their 30s.

Really outside of Connor its probably fair to say we're actually getting a bit old at DC, but that position can age a bit better.


Youth Signing

A local scout recommends GK Paul Ralph of Huddersfield. I owe them $1.1M for signing him, 3* potential and I had mentioned wanting to sign a youth keeper this year, so there we go. We've done a horrible job of training younger keepers so i'm not spending a lot of time here heh.


Friendly #4

We travel to Brighton, mandatory match for feeder club. Scoreless first half, Mills to Crespo for a goal early in the second half. Gordon scores on a free kick soon after before the backups come in. Jean to Constantino for a late goal. Bartlett to Constantino for one final goal.

Brighton 0 : 5 Ipswich


Injury Update

DC/MC Neil Bartlett is hurt late in this one and is out 2-3 weeks.


That takes us to the end of July. We have the community shield then EPL play starts!

[RPI-Fan]

Wow, what irony. You sign Clive Hayward to replace two guys platooning who are named Clive Jackson and Anthony Heywood.

[Radii]

Originally Posted by RPI-Fan

Wow, what irony. You sign Clive Hayward to replace two guys platooning who are named Clive Jackson and Anthony Heywood.

Hah! I had been considering all the confusion on the way when I sub Heywood for Hayward... but I totally failed to notice the first name connection

[Radii]

-- Roma bid $9 Million for Jose Antonio Ballester. That's a bit of an intereresting proposition for us. We don't really need the money, but during the last season Ballester fell to 4th on our depth chart at DC despite making more than everyone but Kieran Connor at DC. We still have Neil Bartlett and Pablo Olvera as well, and haven't even fully decided whether we want to re-sign Ballester. I decide to go ahead and sell him.

-- We've now sold a rather incredible 30,625 season tickets and may sell a few hundred more before we're done. Actually, I don't remember exactly how many we sold last year but a full 3/4 of our stadium filled by season ticket holders is crazy.


August Update

-- The Community Shield vs Arsenal is on August 8th, but we're treating that basically as a friendly. EPL matches on the 14th, 17th, 21st, 28th. The League Cup will start for us at some point as well.

-- The board is pleased with my leadership. Our increase in stature is the positive, no negative. We lost $47.5M last month


Transfer Out

The transfer of DC Jose Antonio Ballester to Roma is complete. Ballester was never bad really, but he just didn't come in and do as well as I thought he would. In only 3 years with Ipswich he never played more than 20 matches in a season. Last year in 14 matches he put up a 6.74 rating. When I bought him I expected him to overshadow Otmar Mattle and Carlos Aldrovandi, but he never did at all. Then I got a new toy in wonderkid Kieran Connor. Ballester probably didn't deserve the treatment he got here, but he leaves as someone who didn't make the impact I hoped and ended up being viewed as someone who was just paid too much for what he did. 3 seasons, 43 matches, 6.85 rating.


Community Shield

Ipswich vs Arsenal

The Community Shield is an exhibition match at Wembley Stadium that features the winner of the EPL and winner of the FA Cup from the previous season. That's us vs Arsenal. Arsenal are slim 5:4 favorites in this one, we're going to play our starters so we are taking it more serious than a friendly but in the end we really don't care at all who wins.

GK: Bogdanovs
D: Kirkland/Aldrovandi/Connor/Hayward
M: Cerspo/Smith/Connolly/Gordon
F: Di Giuseppe/Bryan

Just running through this real fast. 5 subs allowed here.

31': Gordon is hurt

HALF: Scoreless at the half. We shoot 4 times to their 3. Garcia Mut in at the half for the injured Gordon.

50': Goal kick taken very long by Bogdanovs. Di Giuseppe gets behind the defense as the ball lands 19 yards out, the keeper was coming out but not far enough. Di Giuseppe with beautiful control to take the ball on his foot and immediately begin to dribble with it. He moves right and gets the shot by the keeper 1-0


77': Mills, Constantino, Hughes and Jean in for Bryan, Smith, Connolly and Crespo.

84': Hughes is hurt.

Ipswich 1 : 0 Arsenal

Man of the Match: Dmitrijs Bogdanovs (7.5)
Goal: Di Giuseppe (6.9)
Assist: Bogdanovs
Notable: Kirkland (7.3)

Gordon 6.4 when he came out at the half, the rest of the team 6.8-6.9.


-- Hughes is hurt for 4-5 days.

-- Gordon is hurt for 4-5 days.



-- In a coaches meeting we're informed of Constantino's declining agility. DC Carlos Aldrovandi's pace has gone down.




Depth Chart

Going into the new season lets take a quick look at our depth chart.

GK: Bogdanovs / Lines

-- Bogdanovs is world class or at least close to it. If he were to get hurt and we have to fall back to Lines it costs us many, many places in the standings.


DL: Kirkland / Hughes / Heywood

-- Kirkland is still the iron man in our defense. Heywood becomes a viable DL backup with our added depth in Hayward out right. Kirkland is unquestionably our best DL but the dropoff isn't too huge after him.

DC: Connor/Aldrovandi/Mattle/Bartlett/Olvera

Our top three are very very good. There is a dropoff after that but not one so big that we feel like we'd ever regret selling Ballester.

DR: Hayward / Jackson / Heywood

Hayward will hopefully be a solid everyday starter. Jackson/Heywood scout out as noticibly worse but we've had so much success with them we don't worry when they come in.

ML: Crespo / Ros / Hughes

Crespo we love of course, though our offense doesn't run through him as frequently as it does the rest of our midfield. Ros is someone who becomes a regular backup this year.

MC: Smith/Connolly/Mills/Jean/Bartlett/Sergio Roberto

My scouts are telling me more and more that Connolly is my best central mid. He's developed so well and I'm going to be starting him over Mills in my opening day starting lineup. Mills/Jean will of course see significant action and the top four are basically interchangable for me, though Jean is a little more defensive minded than the others.

MR: Gordon / Garcia Mut

Gordon has been a significant strength for us over the last decade and we hope that continues.

ST: Di Giuseppe/Bryan/Constantino/Darcy

Everyone knows these guys. Constantino is fading and his early performances will dictate how often he's used.


We're very, very good, some key players are aging but we have a good mix of experience, youth and players in their absolute prime hopefully to be great this year.

[Radii]

August 14th, 2027

Blackburn @ Ipswich

We're 4:5 favorites in our opener against Blackburn. Blackburn have been in the EPL for this entire dynasty but haven't finished in the top 10 in the last 11 years. 14th last season. We're 7-7-4 lifetime against them.

GK: Bogdanovs
D: Kirkland/Aldrovandi/Connor/Hayward
M: Crespo/Smith/Connolly/Gordon
F: Di Giuseppe/Bryan

Standard mindset at home today.

19': Connolly scores on a nice pass from Bryan... but offsides, seemed real close.

26': Di Giuseppe to Crespo for a good chance, but at the keeper, 5 shots/4 on target so far.

30': Lets push a bit harder, attacking mindset.

37': We're putting tons of pressure on them but nothing yet, two deflected shots that almost went in in the course of a couple minutes here.

HALF: We seem in total control, 10 shots with 5 on target to 4 shots, all off target for them. They're winning everything in the air which is maybe causing a bit of the problem, everything else we're well in control stat wise.

56': Di Giuseppe a yellow.

63': Connor a yellow.

72': Fresh legs throughout the midfield, Ros, mills and Garcia Mut in for Crespo, Connolly and Gordon

76': Smith makes an interception near midfield, a quick pass to Bryan, into the area for Di Giuseppe and he puts it in the net! 1-0

79': Connor with a second yellow... in our offensive half, really stupid right there. We're down a man and done with our subs so this will get ugly. Smith drops back to DC, Bryan MC. Ick.

86': They take advantage of the man advantage and players out of position as their attacker Smith gets by our Craig Smith for an easy goal. 1-1


Ipswich 1 : 1 Blackburn

Man of the Match: Chris Bryan (8.9)
Goal: Di Giuseppe (7.2)
Assist: Bryan
Notables: Kirkland (7.0), Crespo (7.1)

Clive Hayward a 6.3 rating in his first match for us. Connor a 6.9 but the red card cost us two points. Connor will miss our next league match against Arsenal.

[Radii]

August 17th, 2027

Arsenal @ Ipswich

We're 6:4 favorites today, Arsenal very slim 13:8 dogs. We just beat them in the Community Shield.


GK: Bogdanovs
D: Kirkland/Aldrovandi/Mattle/Hayward
M: Crespo/Jean/Mills/Garcia Mut
F: Di Giuseppe/Constantino

Lots of lineup changes today, Mattle in for the suspended Connor. Jean/Mills/Garcia Mut all new starters in the midfield, and Constantino in for Bryan up front.

Counterattacking mindset today.

9': Constantino takes a pass about 25 yards out, dribbles forward but its tackled away, the ball comes free and Jean runs onto it a little left of center, he shoots it and scores from 25 yards away!!! Keeper was clearly caught off guard there. 1-0

28': Arsenal are trying to get the goal back, we've seen a few aggressive attacks by them but nothing really close yet.

HALF: We fly through the last 15 minutes or so. We shoot 6 times, 4 on target. They shoot 8 times, just 1 on target. Its raining and the wet field has been referenced on a couple Arsenal highlights. They have a 55/45 possession edge and they are passing better, other stats pretty even. They do have a lot more fouls committed.

46': We kick off, Di Giuseppe receives a pass from Mills inside the midfield circle and just takes off, beating three defenders, making a run all the way into the penalty area and scoring!! How quick was that? We score at 45:20. 2-0

66': Ros in for Crespo.

73': Olvera in for Aldrovandi.

77': We have a corner... taken short to Olvera, he's tackled hard and he's down. He's hurt, the team is crying out for a penalty that isn't given, and Olvera must leave the match. Ugh. Heywood is in and slightly out of position at DC. Just great.

83': Bogdanovs with a great save on a shot blasted in from 18 yards out. They earn a corner.. then a second corner on a blocked shot, then Mattle with the clearance.

85': They get one goal back as Mattle misses an interception that sets up an easy goal for Bugra Yildirim 15 yards away...

85': Contain, stall, get out of here alive, come on guys.

88': They have a throwin at midfield, a couple passes and Bugra Yildirim shoots from 30 yards out... Bogdanovs goes to his right for it, the ball hits the left post, bounces off of Bogdanovs back and into the net. Unbelievable. 2-2

92': What? A bending effort from their star Bugra Yildirim from 25 yards away curves into the right side of the net and that's it. 2-3

Ipswich 2 : 3 Arsenal

So we take 1:0 and 2:0 leads into the final 20 minutes of our first two matches, end up being forced to play a man out of position at Central Defender in BOTH of them, and find spectacular ways to turn 6 points into 1 point two matches into the season. After tying Arsenal for 1st two years ago and finishing 1 point behind them last year, giving away a 2 goal lead in the final 10 minutes of this match makes me even more sick.

Goals: Di Giuseppe (8.3), Jean (7.3)
Assists: Mills (7.1)

We had tons of guys over 7, the ratings obviously tanked across the board into the 6.1-6.6 range with our horrendus collapse.

[Radii]

Injury Update

DC Pablo Olvera is going to miss 4 weeks with broken ribs he picked up in his 4 minutes of action today.


-- I don't usually mention these kinds of things but in both of these matches there were news stories post-match about how Ipswich were denied penalties as well. The one today where Olvera went down in a heap on a corner kick with a broken rib the second the touched the ball... well, it seems hard to explain how that happens without a foul being committed.

[Radii]

August 21st, 2027

Ipswich (0-1-1) @ Man City (1-1-0)

Man City are 5:4 favorites, we're 7:4 in our first road match of the season. We're 8-7-12 lifetime against them .

GK: Bogdanovs
D: Kirkland/Mattle/Connor/Hayward
DM: Sergio Roberto
M: Crespo/Smith/Connolly/Gordon
F: Bryan

Connor is back in, Aldrovandi can use the day off so Mattle starts at the other DC. We'll run our 4-1-4-1 on the road. Di Giuseppe gets a rest as well at least for the start, Bryan is in.

We'll counterattack.

2': We get an early free kick, Gordon takes it from 20 yards out and puts it just wide left.

28': Two more long shots in highlights where we had room and time to find something better... I issue the "work ball into box" instruction.

HALF: A boring half. 5 shots for Man City, 1 on target. 4 shots for Ipswich, 0 on target. 7 of the 9 shots from long range. Possession is even, we're once again losing out in the air but otherwise stats are pretty close.

48': Sergio Roberto is hurt.

55': They get their best looking shots of the match, a solid shot from an MR streaking in out a little wide to the right, we clear but they build back up and a long shot is barely saved.

70': Jean in for Sergio Roberto at DMC.

75': A pass ahead from Connolly to Bryan. Bryan is 20 yards out with two men on him, he works it out right, drawing the defense into the right corner of the penalty box, he cuts back inside, losing one man in the process. Craig Smith right down the middle, Bryan lays the pass over to Smith, Smith scores easily!! 1-0

82': Bryan gives the ball away in the midfield and sets up a break for Man City, after a couple passes they get their first clear cut chance of the match but Bogdanovs makes a great save and we clear the corner.

87': Mills in for Connolly.

No goals given away in the closing minutes of this one, big win after our slow start!

Man City 0 : 1 Ipswich

Man of the Match: Craig Smith (7.7)
Goal: Smith
Assist: Bryan (7.4)
Notables: Bogdanovs (7.5), Hayward (7.1), Kirkland (7.3), Connor (7.0)

Hayward is mentioned for the first time, solid in our win today. Bogdanovs was great today.



-- After the match Betis offer us $18 Million for ML Crespo. I turn it down and it gets leaked into the press, Crespo is unhappy with me.


-- After 3 matches in a week we get a full week off here.

-- Newcastle are off to a 3-0-0 start out in first.

[Radii]

-- Olympique Lyonnais just offered me $68 Million for Kieran Connor... as a club not in any sort of financial trouble though, it seems

silly to consider selling a kid with the wonderkid label, even a DC for that much. I do look at it, a lot. But I reject it.

-- We receive $10.1M for making it to the Champions League Group Stage. We didnt' have to qualify this year. Chelsea did though!

European Champions Cup Group Stage Draw

1 seeds: Man City, Inter, Olympqiue Lyonnais, Barcelona, Arsenal, Genoa, Atletico Madrid, OM

Doesn't seem a weak 1 seed in the bunch. We'd rather get in a group with one of the two French sides. We're a 2 seed. FC Bayern and Betis stand out as much stronger 3 seeds than the rest (maybe Stuttgart as well) so we hope we don't end up with one of them.

Group H

1 seed: OM - 4 time defending French Ligue 1 Champions. 3 time Champions League winners, won in 2025, runner up last year.
2 seed: Ipswich
3 seed: Anderlecht - Belgian side, made the group stage 2 years ago, lost in a preliminary playoff last year. Never advanced out of the group stage
4 seed: Zurich - Hasn't made the group stage since 2021, only qualify once every 3 years or so on average.


I like our draw a lot.


Injury Update

DC Carlos Aldrovandi turns his knee in practice and is out 2 weeks. Well that leaves us a bit thin. Mattle/Connor/Bartlett


League Cup 3rd Round Draw

We'll host Championship side Plymouth.

August 28th, 2027

Ipswich (1-1-1) @ Exeter (0-2-1)

We're slim 6:4 favorites on the road, Exeter are only 13:8 to get a win here. We're 12-2-2 lifetime against them, though we have played to a draw the last two times we faced them on the road.

GK: Bogdanovs
D: Kirkland/Mattle/Bartlett/Hayward
M: Ros/Smith/Connolly/Gordon
F: Di Giuseppe/Darcy

We get Bartlett and Darcy and Ros starts today. Standard mindset on the road to start. They're in a 4-1-4-1 formation against us.

17': Lots and lots of highlights but nothing really worth noting so far.

31': Gordon is hurt and force to leave the match immediately. And how awesome am I, I don't have Garcia Mut available today, with the full week off I figured Gordon would just go 90 minutes. Heywood comes in at MR.

38': A quick attack, Bogdanovs a long throw, Ros takes it over midfield, a pass up to Di Giuseppe, he's in the left side of the area at a rather tough angle, takes his time and places it low to the near post. Their keeper goes down for it but can't quite stop it, goal! 1-0

HALF: We shoot 10 times (3 on target) to their 8 (3 on target). There were lots of highlights and we saw a lot of shots but mostly they were just way off target or not scary long range efforts. We control 56% of the possession. They're better in the air, barely, we're better everywhere else.

47': They take a long shot from 30 yards out, Bogdanovs ends up having to dive for it and forces a corner. We clear that.

61': They have a goal kick, taken short, 3 quick passes and they're all the way downfield, a through ball into the area for backup ST Carcamo and he puts it by Bogdanovs and ties it up. 1-1

68': Di Giuseppe crosses in to Darcy after a throwin, Darcy's header is barely over.

69': Bryan in for Darcy and we will attack.

79': Ros a yellow.


We can't do anything else with this one.

Exeter 1 : 1 Ipswich

Man of the Match: Dmitrijs Bogdanovs (8.4)
Goal: Di Giuseppe (7.4)
Assist: Ros (6.9)
Notables: Hayward (7.1), Kirkland (7.0), Mattle (7.0)



-- Gordon is only out 4-5 days with the injury he picked up today. There's an international break so we're fine there.

[Radii]

Player Transfer

We got a few prospect recommendations and I decide to spend some money on a younger player or two. The first one is too old to garner home grown status but could be a solid addition with our aging DC's. 19 y/o DRC Gareth Williams has been playing extremely well for Cardiff in the Championship. Valued at $2.5M, we offer that and Cardiff knows this is a guy destined for the EPL and let him go.

Physical: Pace 15/Jumping 15/Agility 15/Balance 15/Accel 13, a little low in the strength area, hopefully that comes up with training (its only 9 now).

Mental: Determination 18/Bravery 18/Decisions 15, most other ratings in the 11-14 range. I'm a huge fan of high determination.

Technical: Marking 17/Passing 16/Tackling 13/Heading 14

Williams has been starting for Cardiff since he was 16. He's already played 100 league matches at the Championship level with a career average of 7.14. I want Williams training with the senior squad, he'll mainly play for the reserves this year most likely but will get playing time in the league cup and against weaker opponents.


Kieran Connor is the perfect role model for Williams and I immediately set them up to work together.


September Update

-- We play on the 11th, 15th, 18th, 21st, 25th, and 28th. Two Champions League matches and a league cup match.

-- Yuri Di Giuseppe is 3rd in young player of the month voting for August

-- Yuri Di Giuseppe had the 2nd best goal of the month, against Arsenal.

-- The board is pleased with my leadership. The "amazing increase in stature" is a highlight. The board seems unhappy with my signing of Clive Hayward. We made $11M in profit last month.


Home Grown Status

I register for the Champions League group stage, we need 8 players trained in england and 4 trained at Ipswich. We have 16 from England and 8 trained at the club.

Ipswich Home Grown Players (age in parenthises): Jack Hughes (27), Stuart Kirkland (28), Clive Jackson (27), Craig Smith (22), David Ros (21), Eoin Darcy (23), Chris Bryan (24), Neil Gordon (31)


Transfer Deadline Passes

This is mainly news for us at this point to note that we made it through August without serious attempts by other squads to pry Yuri Di Giuseppe away from us. There were serious offers for Bogdanovs and MC Brett connolly that we turned away repeatedly, and one unbelievably large offer for Kieran Connor that we rebuffed. The only player who seemed to become unhappy that I wouldn't accept an offer for them was ML Juan Pablo Crespo. I'm assuming he'll settle back down as he is a successful regular starter.


Injury Update

Rather bad news here. On Sept 2nd, Constantino is hurt for about a week, not a huge deal, but its noted that Chris Bryan injured him by colliding with him during practice. Two days later, Chris Bryan hurts himself during a fall in practice, and he's going to miss all of September. UGH!

-- Some good news as Carlos Aldrovandi does resume full training during the international break.



European Championship Qualifiers

Day 1 : Di Giuseppe scores a goal for Italy against Israel. Darcy, Connor, Mattle and Bogdanovs also play for their nations.

Day 2 : Hayward and Connor both play well for England, Di Giuseppe for Italy and our new signing DC Gareth Williams for Wales. Mattle has a tough match for Austrai. Eoin Darcy is the star today though scoring twice for Ireland in a 4:0 win over Aremnia. Darcy is well on his way to becoming a legend in Ireland, he's 23 years old and has 27 caps and 20 goals for his country.


Champions League Odds

Arsenal are 4:1 favorites to win the Champions Cup this year. At. Madrid are 15:2, Cagliari 10:1, Barcelona and Man City are both 11:1. We're not far behind at all at 12:1 to win the thing.

September 11th, 2027

Sheffield Utd (2-2-0) @ Ipswich (1-2-1)

We are big 4:5 favorites today to get our first home win. Lets see if we can go 90 minutes at home with everyone playing in their natural positions for a change. We have a bad history vs Sheffield Utd, 8-4-15 lifetime against them. We have won 4 of the last 5 meetings though.

GK: Bogdanovs
D: Kirkland/Mattle/Connor/Hayward
M: Crespo/Smith/Mills/Gordon
F: Di Giuseppe/Darcy

We're going to attack at home.

6': Sheffield Utd control the ball and work to get it in the area, but we clear, Mills with a header up to midfield that Di Giuseppe runs down. He's got 3 defenders chasing from 2 different angles, but he shows brilliant control of the ball, gets into the left side of the area, comes in at a very narrow angle and blasts a shot by the keeper! 1-0

13': Smith with a pass to Darcy, he receives it 20 yards out, turns by his man, shoots from 18 yards away and scores! 2-0

20': Di Giuseppe with a precision shot by their keeper but it hits the post and goes wide, soo close.

HALF: We fly to the half after that. We shoot 6 times, they shoot 8 times. We put 2 on target, both in the net. We continue to attack.

54': We control possession and look to find an opening, Mills ahead to Darcy, Darcy turns by his man, draws a defender and Gordon breaks to the goal, Darcy ahead to Gordon who scores easily! 3-0

72': Sergio Roberto in for Smith, Garcia Mut in fo Gordon.

83': Bartlett in for Mills.

Ipswich 3 : 0 Sheffield Utd

Excellent performance today!

Man of the Match: Eoin Darcy (8.5)
Goals: Darcy, Di Giuseppe (8.3), Gordon (8.1)
Assists: Darcy, Smith (7.6), Mills (7.5)
Notables: Bogdanovs (7.2), Hayward (7.4), Kirkland (7.7), Connor (7.1), Mattle (7.4), Crespo (8.2)



-- Brazil's national job opens up and they extend an offer to me. As before I'm basically afraid that the extra tedium of running a national team could really bog me down if I don't *really* enjoy it, so I just turn it down.

[Radii]

September 15th, 2027

European Champions Cup Group H

Zurch @ Ipswich

I wish this wasn't our opener, because with a couple wins behind us we could probably afford to play a number of backups here. We're 4:7 favorites at home today.

GK: Bogdanovs
D: Kirkland/Mattle/Aldrovandi/Jackson
M: Ros/Jean/Connolly/Garcia Mut
F: Di Giuseppe/Darcy

Aldrovandi is back in the lineup, we get Clive Jackson his first action today, backups across the midfield. We'll attack.

6': Corner taken by Garcia Mut, Darcy with a strong header, early goal! 1-0

15': We give away the ball during an attack, they launch a long ball and it seems like Mattle just misjudges it horribly, coming forward instead of charging back, allowing their attacker to get miles behind him, free run into the area and a goal for Zurich. 1-1

24': Di Giuseppe takes a free kick from 30 yards out, he gets it by the wall and into the upper right corner of the net, great shot! 2-1

29': There we go, hopefully we've got full control now, Darcy to Garcia Mut who beats a defender and scores from close range, his first ever Ipswich goal! 3-1

44': Di Giuseppe does it again, this time from a solid 35 yards away on a free kick!! 4-1

HALF: Total domination, one huge error but we score 4 times and have it in control. I bring Constantino in for Di Giuseppe at the half. Constantino hasn't played enough and got hurt a bit and is actually a bit out of shape, so he needs to get out there. I also give newly signed DC Gareth Williams his first half of first team action, he comes in for Aldrovandi.

66': Who needs match shape? Kirkland cross, Constantino header, goal! 5-1

70': Hughes in for Kirkland.

Ipswich 5 : 1 Zurich

Their keeper earns a 9.4 rating and man of the match despite allowing 5 goals. I guess we could have scored 10+ or something. Weird.

Goals: Di Giuseppe 2 (9.0), Darcy (9.1), Garcia Mut (9.1), Constantino (6.9)
Assists: Darcy 2, Garcia Mut, Kirkland (8.0)
Notables: Jackson (7.4), Mattle (7.2), Ros (7.5), Connolly (7.0), Jean (7.1)


-- OM struggles to a 1:1 draw on the road at Anderlecht. That's good news for us.

-- We receive $1.1M for the win.

[Radii]

-- An early story in the EPL... tottenham are 0-1-4, they've given up 18 goals in 5 matches and are in dead last right now. They just lost 4-3 at home to Burnley, a team who just promoted up after 7 years in the Championship.

-- Sergio Roberto requests a transfer. He just never fit in, and I put him on the transfer list. He's 30 years old and just really getting playing time because I'm trying to keep him happy and for no other real reason.

September 21st, 2027

League Cup Third Round

Plymouth (CH) @ Ipswich (EPL)

We're 1:4 favorites here and will play youngsters and such.

GK: Lines
D: Hughes/Connor/Williams/Jackson
M: Ros/Jean/Bartlett/Garcia Mut
F: Darcy/Constantino

Lines, Hughes, Williams, Jackson, Ros, Bartlett all players who won't play all that much getting starts here.

1': Garcia Mut to Constantino, we score 44 seconds in. 1-0

8': Jean to Constantino, their keeper has no chance. 2-0

24': Hughes is hurt, can stay in.

37': Jackson is hurt, can stay in.

HALF: Easy lead, should be fine to advance without a silly collapse.

64': Garcia Mut cross, Darcy header, well done. 3-0

88': Hat trick for Constantino, it may be considered unassisted, Ros tried to lob it into the area but it deflected off someone and Constantino grabbed the rebound. 4-0

Ipswich 4 : 0 Plymouth

Man of the Match: Constantino (9.6)
Goals: Constantino 3, Darcy (8.6)
Assists: Garcia Mut (9.0), Ros (8.1), Jean (8.0)
Notables: Jackson (7.7), Hughes (7.6), Connor (7.4)

Williams 6.9 in 90 minutes, not bad at all for our youngster.

-- Jack Hughes will miss ~10 days with a thigh strain.

[Radii]

League Cup 4th Round Draw

Tough draw, we have to travel to Arsenal. We won't be putting rookies out there but if there are other important games around the same time we won't be playing a full starting lineup either.


September 25th, 2027

Leeds(1-0-4, 18th) @ Ipswich(2-2-1, 9th)

We're bigger favorites here than we were against Plymouth in the league cup. 1:6 to win! Leeds had been in the Championship for 17 years straight before winning the playoffs last year to move up.

GK: Lines
D: Kirkland/Aldrovandi/Williams/Heywood
M: Ros/Smith/Connolly/Gordon
F: Di Giuseppe/Darcy

Lines and Williams play today, Heywood a start at DR, Ros at ML but some strength elsewhere. Attacking from the start here.

4': Kirkland heads a ball into the area after some buildup and an attempted clearance by them. The keeper goes for it but doesn't hold it, there's a rebound and Di Giuseppe is there to put it in the net! 1-0

12': Smith to Di Giuseppe who beats a defender then shoots a beautiful bending shot from 25 yards away out wide to the left that the keeper has no chance at getting to. 2-0

HALF: We have a couple other chances to score in the half but end up taking a 2 goal lead to the locker room. Garcia Mut will play the second half for Gordon at MR.

The second half flies by without much to note.

Ipswich 2 : 0 Leeds

Man of the Match: Yuri Di Giuseppe (9.0)
Goals: Di Giuseppe 2
Assists: Kirkland (8.5), Smith (7.8)
Notables: Ros (7.0)

Lines and Williams both 6.9's.

Di Giuseppe now has 6 goals in 6 matches for us, he's got the early lead in goals in the EPL.

Next up is a road match at OM to decide who gets the early edge in our Champions League group.

[Radii]

September 28th, 2027

European Champions Cup Group H

Ipswich @ OM

OM are 5:4 to win at home, we're 7:4 with a 11:5 chance to draw. On the road early in the group stage I tend towards more defensive formations in these spots. I see no reason to change that here. We played OM twice last year of course, in the Champions League Semifinals. We tied them twice, but they advanced on away goals.

GK: Bogdanovs
D: Kirkland/Aldrovandi/Connor/Hayward
DM: Jean
M: Crespo/Smith/Mills/Gordon
F: Di Giuseppe

We'll run a 4-1-4-1 counterattacking today against OM with Jean as our DMC.

4': Smith with a run down the middle and a shot that is considered a clear cut chance... but I dunno about that, either way, its saved.

5': Crespo a yellow.

16': Non stop OM highlights, 6 shots, 3 corners and a couple dangerous free kicks.

HALF: More of the same the rest of the half. We shoot 3 times putting 2 on target. OM shoots 11 times with 5 on target. More than that they put Bogdanovs in scary situations over and over with crosses into dangerous spots. We almost had an own goal on a deflection by Aldrovandi and Bogdanovs made a great play to save it. No one on either team has a rating over 7.0 at the half except Bogdanovs, and he's at 8.2.

65': Connolly in for Smith, Garcia Mut in for Gordon.

That's really it, they put a shot off the crossbar in the 92nd minute, we take the rebound and almost get a good counterattack going, but in the end there's no real threats.

OM 0 : 0 Ipswich

Man of the Match: Dmitrijs Bogdanovs (8.3)
Notables: Hayward (7.0), Kirkland (7.6), Connor (7.2), Aldrovandi (7.0)


We only shoot 5 times all match, they shoot 16 times but in the end 12 of those are from long range. They put some serious pressure on bogdanovs at times, our defense did a great job keeping the pressure off in the second half though.

-- We receive $574k for the draw.


Anderlecht beats Zurich 1:0. Our next match is in about 3 weeks at home against Anderlecht. After two matches:

Ipswich 1-1-0 - 4 pts
Anderlecht 1-1-0 - 4 pts
OM 0-2-0 - 2 pts
Zurich 0-0-2 - 0 pts

Were +4 goal differential, Anderlecht +1

[Radii]

Yuri Di Giuseppe was 2nd in player of the month voting, 3rd in young player of the month voting, and had the #1 and #3 goals of the month for September. Not bad!

The goal of the month, as always, fullscreen to tell what the hell is happening:

[Radii]

October Update

-- We play on the 2nd, 5th, 16th, 19th, 24th, 27th and 30th. Champions League on the 19th, League Cup on the 27th. The break between the 5th and 16th is for two more European Championship Qualifiers.

-- Man Utd's Stuart Wray is player of the month in the EPL. Di Giuseppe is second in the voting. Di Giuseppe is also 3rd in young player of the month voting. Di Giuseppe ALSO has the #1 goal of the month AND the #3 goal of the month for October!

-- We only played two league matches in September thanks to a long international break, the league cup and euro cup, but we won our two matches 3:0 and 2:0 and that was enough for me to win manager of the month honors.

-- The board is pleased with my leadership. The signing of Ruben Garcia Mut is the highlight, no negative. We did lose $6.3M last month.

October 2nd, 2027

Ipswich (3-2-1, 7th) @ Sunderland (3-2-2, 8th)

This one is pretty even with Sunderland 6:4 and we are 13:8 on the road. Sunderland are seen as among the favorites to win the league this year, so this one could be pretty important if they live up to the hype. We're 6-1-7 lifetime against them, last year the home team won each meeting.

GK: Bogdanovs
D: Kirkland/Aldrovandi/Connor/Hayward
M: Crespo/Smith/Connolly/Garcia Mut
F: Di Giuseppe/Darcy

Some changes since we're on reasonably short rest and play again in 3 days (in another tough match @Huddersfield). Garcia Mut starts today.

Counterattacking mindset on the road.

Its absolutely pouring down rain here.

10': We cleared a ball out of our half but they get to it and launch it very long. Their ST Edson gets to it before Connor and shoots quickly and scores. First highlight of the match, yuck. 0-1

19': A pass from midfielder Franco to Edson, he controls it 18 yards out, pushes it ahead into the area as Aldrovandi goes for a tackle and misses, Edson gets to the ball in the area and scores another easy easy goal. 0-2

36': A long ball ahead from our defense, Darcy has it near midfield and passes it up over the defense. Di Giuseppe is there, has a half step on his man and keeps the edge all the way into the area, he places a shot near post by the keeper and gets us back into the match. 1-2

HALF: Aldrovandi took the blame for one of their goals and pays for it with a 5.5 rating so far. They shoot 11 times to our 3, have a 55/45 possession edge and are doing everything better than us. We got the one breakaway goal to keep it close and will press a bit harder in the second half. Standard mindset.

76': Ros, Mills, Gordon in for Crespo, Connolly and Garcia Mut. We just aren't getting anything at all going here.

80': We'll try to attack in the final 10 minutes.

Nope, nothing. One header by Darcy that ends up wide. Sunderland did a good job of just shutting it down in the second half.

Sunderland 2 : 1 Ipswich

Goal: Di GIuseppe (7.1)
Assist: Darcy (6.9)
Notable: Connor (7.1)

Crespo left with a 5.9 rating, not a good day for him.

[chesapeake]

That Arsenal match is one of those that would leave me swearing at the monitor for several minutes afterward. You've been so close to the title the last two years; it is losses like that one to one of your top rivals that you worry will be the difference at the end of the season.

[Radii]

Originally Posted by chesapeake

That Arsenal match is one of those that would leave me swearing at the monitor for several minutes afterward. You've been so close to the title the last two years; it is losses like that one to one of your top rivals that you worry will be the difference at the end of the season.

Yeah, pretty much. We're in 10th right now, I'm not worried (yet ) about making it back into the top 4, but to get over the hump and to finish first... every point is so critical and the ones we gave away in our first two matches are insanely frustrating.

[kingfc22]

Very up and down start to the year so far.

[Radii]

October 5th, 2027

Ipswich (3-2-2, 10th) @ Huddersfield (4-0-1, 9th)

Huddersfield is another team that's challenged for spots in Europe the last few years, they're just 1 point ahead of us but have 2 less played right now. They are 5:4 favorites at their place. We're 10-9-12 lifetime against them. We got swept by them last year though and two years ago lost on the road and tied at home.. we haven't beaten them in the last 6 times we've played.

GK: Bogdanovs
D: Kirkland/Aldrovandi/Connor/Hayward
DM: Jean
M: Crespo/Connolly/Mills/Gordon
F: Di Giuseppe

We'll go with a 4-1-4-1 for now. Some of these guys are a little tired but we've got the international break coming up and I'm a little more aggressive with my lineup as a result. We'll counterattack.

16': We build up on offense, Mills passes to Connolly, he's 25 yards out dead center, he just turns and fires from there and hits the upper left corner of the net, perfect shot!! 1-0

40': Neil Gordon takes a pass from Connolly and shoots quickly from 18 ayrds out, the keeper has to dive to make the save, sooo close. Corner goes nowhere.

47': We control it on the offensive end, passing around the right side. Hayward passes ahead to Di Giuseppe, he turns by his man, into the right side of the area, shoots far post from a really difficult angle... it hits the left post and bounces in, great goal! 2-0

HALF: Connolly his first goal of the year and Hayward his first assist for Ipswich out of the back. We've only allowed 3 shots, taken 5, we've had two great shots and goals that makes the lead look a ton bigger than the difference in play on the pitch.

77': Corner for huddersfield they take it short, its headed across the face of the goal, an attacker at the far post, he heads it... the net is open as Bogdanovs had gone to defend.. but their attacker puts it in the side netting.

Huddersfield 0 : 2 Ipswich

Its good defense on our part to keep the second half that boring. They shoot 8 times total, just 2 on target, we don't see many in highlights.

Man of the Match: Yuri Di Giuseppe (8.3)
Goals: Di Giuseppe, Connolly (7.6)
Assists: Mills (6.9), Hayward (7.9)
Notables: Kirkland (7.9), Connor (7.4), Gordon (7.9), Crespo (7.0)

I'm very happy to see my new DR Clive Hayward put up a 7.9 rating today. He's still getting the "trying to blend in" note from our assistant, so hopefully he just gets better for us. We jump up to 6th with a very nice road win here.


-- A report comes out that MC Brett Connolly is a bit disillusioned by the fact that we're underachieving so far. Settle down Brett.

[Radii]

-- Constantino thinks the club is underachieiving, but unlike Connolly, good guy Constantino stresses he doesn't want to leave and will do everything he can to see the club succeed.

-- Youngster Gareth Williams is hurt in an international match and will miss 3 weeks.

International Roundup

-- England beats San Marino 3:0, Stuart Kirkland gets an assist in this one and Kieran Connor also starts.

-- DC Otmar Mattle scored in a 1:1 draw for Austria against Wales. Gareth Williams played in this one too, this is where he got hurt.

-- Di Giuseppe plays for Italy but doesn't do well.

-- Ireland beats Latvia 2:0, Darcy with an assist for Ireland, Bogdanovs in goal for Latvia.

-- In the second day of Euro Qualifiers, Bogdanovs, Kirkland, Connor, Mattle and Aldrovandi all play, along with Di Giuseppe who scores 2 goals in a 4-1 Italy win over Faroe Islands. Di Giuseppe now has 19 goals in 32 international matches... before his 21st birthday.

Injury Update

-- Oh god. Chris Bryan just came back from a 4 week injury... and he's now hurt his back in weight training and is out 3-4 more weeks.

-- On the next day Mattle is hurt in an international match and is out a week.


October 16th, 2027

Everton (4-4-0, 4th) @ Ipswich (4-2-2, 10th)

We've even money favorites today over Everton, despite their early success, they haven't lost yet this year. We're 8-5-6 lifetime against them with two very large wins over them last season (5:1 at home/3:0 on the road).

GK: Bogdanovs
D: Hughes/Aldrovandi/Connor/Hayward
M: Crespo/Smith/Connolly/Gordon
F: Di Giuseppe/Constantino

Kirkland rests, tired after the Euro Championship Qualifiers. Everton run a 4-1-4-1. We will attack.

4': Aldrovandi is hurt. Can stay in, may leave at the half though, we'll see.

12': Gordon receives a pass 25 yards out, gets by a man, into the area, gets a clear cut chance but ends up at a bit too close range I think and the keeper blocks his shot, great effort though!

14': Smith ahead to Crespo, Crespo dribbles in the area.. he's tackled, penalty given! Gordon lines up for it... but the keeper dives the same way as he shoots and saves it. Its cleared but we push it back in quickly. Di Giuseppe passes to Crespo cutting in from the left, Crespo shoots and scores!!! 1-0

23': Absolutely beautiful play, Aldrovandi clears out a pass at our 18 yard line, Constantino controls it, lobs it ahead to Di Giuseppe, he's 40 yards out, runs by one man, cuts out wide as another closes and puts a beautifully placed shot far post by the keeper! 2-0

29': they get one back pretty quickly. Bogdanovs punches away a cross, they recover and shoot from 20 yards out, great recovery by Bogdanovs to make a diving save on that shot, but they hop on the rebound and score finally. 2-1

35': Smith with a through ball for constantino, it looks like he'll get a good shot but they make a tackle to give us a corner, great pass. We don't do anything on the corner.

45': Through ball from Connolly,Gordon breaks for it, a defender is on him but he manages to get there a split second before the defense and puts it in with his first touch! We're told that this is Neil gordon's 100th career goal! 3-1

HALF: 12 shots to their 5, a nice possession edge, we're not tackling that well but other than that we're way out ahead. Jean in for Di Giuseppe who is pretty tired after two international matches recently. 4-1-4-1 to try to hold the lead.

59': They move down the field well and get a pretty good shot, but Bogdanovs makes a nice diving save.

85': Connor comes up big, they shoot off the right crossbar, Bogdanovs dives over that way to try to stop it, the ball ends up popping up in the air just outside the 6 yard box, Connor goes up for a header with a defender... net empty, and Connor wins the header to clear it away.

Ipswich 3 : 1 Everton

Strong win here.

Man of the Match: Yuri Di Giuseppe (8.2)
Goals: Di Giuseppe, Crespo (8.0), Gordon (7.7)
Assists: Di Giuseppe, Constantino (6.9), Connolly (7.9)
Notables: Bogdanovs (7.2), Hughes (7.0), Smith (7.2)



Up to 5th with our win today. We're 3 points out of 1st, but a couple teams ahead of us have 2 games in hand.

[Radii]

October 19th, 2027

European Champions Cup - Group H

Anderlecth (1-1-0, 2nd) @ Ipswich (1-1-0, 1st)

OM sits in 3rd after two matches but they play Zurich today and are heavy favorites there. We are good sized 4:6 favorites at home today and can take a solid lead in the group with a win over the 3 seed.

GK: Bogdanovs
D: Kirkland/Aldrovandi/Connor/Hayward
M: Crespo/Smith/Mills/Garcia Mut
F: Di Giuseppe/Darcy

We'll attack today.

7': Garcia Mut with a yellow.

10': Smith with a run into the area, dribbling nicely in very tight space, he passes to Darcy wide open at the penalty spot and Darcy passes it into the right side of the net. 1-0

27': They have a throwin near midfield, a couple quick passes ahead, a run into the right side of the area, their mid makes a centering pass that's deflected by one of our defenders. They pounce on the deflection and catch everyone out of position as a result, easy goal to tie it up for Anderlecht. 1-1

38': Darcy has the ball 30 yards out, he passes into the area for Crespo, it seems like he's offsides but its not called. Crespo scores easily from close range! 2-1

47': Di Giuseppe with a header that hits the crossbar and bounces over, soooo close.

HALF: We have the lead but we'd really like to put this away more solidly. We have 7 shots to their 4, 3 on target to 1 for them. We are tackling very poorly (45%!!!) but dominating in the air. Most of our tackling woes are up front/trying to retain possession in the offensive end or aggressively win the ball in the midfield. Darcy 0/4, Smith 1/3, Mills 2/5.

55': They build up slowly on offense but a cross is intercepted nicely by Aldrovandi. He passes ahead to Di giuseppe, a run into our offensive end, pass ahead to Darcy, he's only got one defender near, he beats his man, shoots and scores! 2-0

69': Lets secure this two goal win and give our star a rest. Jean in for Di Giuseppe, Jean to DMC. Ros also comes in for Crespo and we change to a counterattacking mindset.

78': We earn a corner, taken short to Aldrovandi, he has a powerful effort but the ball deflects off the defender on the line at the right post and goes free.

Ipswich 3 : 1 Anderlecht

Man of the Match: Eoin Darcy (8.8)
Goals: Darcy 2, Crespo (7.5)
Assists: Darcy, Di Giuseppe (7.6), Smith (8.0)
Notables: Hayward (7.0), Kirkland (7.1)


-- We receive $1.148M for winning here.

-- OM beats Zurich 3:1 and the standings settle where we pretty much expect to see things:

1. Ipswich 2-1-0 - 7 pts
2. OM 1-2-0 - 5 pts
3. Anderlecht 1-1-1 - 4 pts
4. Zurich 0-0-3 - 0 pts


Anderlecht certainly has a path to advancing and we still have work to do, but we've put ourself in a near perfect situation at the halfway point of the group stage.


Arsenal, Chelsea, and Man City all appear to be well on their way to advancing to the knockout rounds as well.

[Radii]

October 24th, 2027

Ipswich (5-2-2, 5th) @ Tottenham (0-3-5, 20th)

Tottenham are flailing badly and sit in dead last in the league right now. As a result we are made 4:6 favorites to get a win on the road, they are 7:2. Hopefully we can take advantage of the situation and grab 3 points. We're 5-5-10 lifetime against them.

GK: Bogdanovs
D: Kirkland/Aldrovandi/Connor/Hayward
M: Crespo/Smith/Connolly/Gordon
F: Di Giuseppe/Darcy

Connolly and Gordon come back into the lineup today.

1': They kick off, move straight down the pitch and ST Mangan shoots from 25 yards out, bending a shot inward, Bogdanovs makes a diving save... they almost scored 15 seconds in there.

9': buildup down the right for Ipswich, Gordon to Connolly, Connolly with a lob into the area, Darcy runs onto it nicely, shoots and scores! 1-0

40': They score a goal after a throwin and a very nice cross, but its called offsides... very very lucky for us.

HALF: We take a 1-0 lead into the locker room. We've been in complete control here, 13 shots to their 4, 63% of the possession, absolutely dominating every stat. No changes at the half for us.

50': Brilliance for Di Giuseppe, he and Darcy with a little give and go way out near midfield , Di Giuseppe beats two men, runs into the right side of the area and shoots a difficult shot to the far post from a tough angle by the keeper! That's his 50th league goal for Ipswich! 2-0

57': Hayward with a cross in from the right side, Di Giuseppe controls it just outside the area, dribbles into the area, shoots and scores! Another really difficult shot here. 3-0

60': Bogdanovs comes out 30 yards to clear a ball but they pressure him and its a weak clearance, possibly a miskick. ML Smart picks it up for them about 40 yards out, lobs the ball over Bogdanovs and into the net. 3-1

64': Ugh, a cross in from the right and a header by Bogdanovs and in. We've let them turn a blowout into a really close game in a matter of minutes. 3-2

64': Jean in for Darcy, counterattacking. On the road we probably should have done this long ago to keep them from building up any momentum.

77': Jean picks up an injury but will stay in.

90': Di Giuseppe hat trick!!!!! We clear out a cross, Di Giuseppe picks it up at the midfield line, beats two defenders and makes a long run by himself, he shoots from 18 yards out and beats the keeper, that'll seal it for us! 4-2

Tottenham 2 : 4 Ipswich

Man of the Match: Yuri Di Giuseppe (9.5)
Goals: Di Giuseppe 3, Darcy (8.2)
Assists: Hayward (7.9), Connor (7.2), Connolly (8.0), Darcy
Notables: Bogdanovs (7.4), Kirkland (7.3)

Another really strong performance from our new DR Hayward, still listed as trying to blend in but he's had some very good games lately.


We move into 4th for now with this win. Teams around us have less matches played though, we could be a couple spots lower when it all evens out.

[Radii]

-- With the hat trick against Tottenham Yuri Di Giuseppe has 12 league goals and an 8.14 rating in league play. Arsenal veteran Bugra Yildirim has 9 goals and an 8.04 rating. Di Giuseppe leads the league in both stats 10 matches in, Bugra Yildirim is 2nd in both. The last two seasons Yildirim scored 32 goals and 33 goals in league play, setting new league records each time. I'd love to see Di Giuseppe keep up this torrid pace and make a run at 30 goals.

October 27th, 2027

League Cup Fourth Round

Ipswich @ Arsenal

Arsenal are 4:5 favorites here. We have a key match against Man Utd in 3 days are are just 3 days off our road win over Tottenham. We like beating Arsenal but we simply don't care about the leauge cup.

GK: Lines
D: Hughes/Mattle/Olvera/Heywood
M: Ros/Bartlett/Sergio Roberto/Garcia Mut
F: Marney/Constantino

Ernie Marney is a youth striker, backups at literally every position today. Arsenal appear to be playing starters today and I don't know how they can afford to do so honestly. We expect to lose big and are only watching commentary today.

35': Garcia Mut is hurt

38': Sergio Roberto is hurt.

HALF: Nice job keeping it scoreless!

51': Mills in for the injured Sergio Roberto

61': Arsenal score on a very long throwin, header from one side of the 6 yard box to the other and a header into the net. 0-1

65': Mills goes down in the area and its a penalty. Constantino takes it and ties it up! 1-1

74': Arsenal star Bugra Yildirim gives them the lead with an easy poacher's goal. 1-2

78': A second goal from Bugra Yildirim from 20 yards out likely seals it. 1-3

Arsenal 3 : 1 Ipswich


Its really hard to express how much we don't care about the league cup. Arsenal hosts Leeds next and that may well explain their willingness to play starters 90 minutes today.


-- Garcia Mut is out for about 10 days. Sergio Roberto out for 2 weeks.

[Radii]

October 30th, 2027

Man Utd (6-2-0, 3rd) @ Ipswich (6-2-2, 4th)

We're very slim 6:4 favorites at home today. We're even in points with Man Utd but they have two less matches played. We're 8-11-8 against Man Utd, dead even! We haven't lost to Man Utd at home in over 5 years now outside of a league cup match.

GK: Bogdanovs
D: Kirkland/Aldrovandi/Connor/Hayward
M: Crespo/Smith/Connolly/Gordon
F: Di Giuseppe/Darcy

Back to a full starting lineup today. Standard mindset at home.

23': They have a throwin near midfield, they throw it long and Aldrovandi wins the header, sending it forward. A pass goes to Darcy, he tries to beat his man and make a run but its tackled away. The ball goes right to Connolly, he passes ahead to Darcy who now has a break on his man who just made the tackle. Darcy into the area and he scores! 1-0

24': Smith to Darcy who gets free in the area for another clear cut chance... but right at the keeper this time.

46': A pass to Smith 18 yards out after a throwin.. Smith turns by a defender and gets a pretty solid shot off, but its saved.

HALF: A solid 1-0 lead for us. We control 58% of the possession, shoot 12 times to their 3, they have all 3 from long range and all off target. This is where I struggle a lot with halftime instructions, do we keep pressing or pull back a bit assuming a big attack coming from Man U? At home my default is to keep pushing, we stay in our standard mindset.

46': Beautiful play by Bogdanovs, they attack out of the gate and Bogdanovs makes a good save on a quick shot. We counter quickly, a header from Di GIuseppe to Darcy is headed away... back to Di Giuseppe, this time he heads it forward and Darcy breaks to it and is behidn the defense, our fourth clear cut chance... but saved.

57': Darcy receives a through ball in the area, clear cut chance #5... a diving save made. Rebound to Di Giuseppe, clear cut chance #6... an incredible reaction from the keeper, another diving stop.

61': Buildup on ofense, Gordon to Connolly, passed into the area for Di Giuseppe, he shoots from 15 yards out and this time he beats the keeper and scores! 2-0

69': Now we fall back into a counterattacking mindset.

73': Jean in for Connolly.

86': Clear cut chance #7 as Jean puts a ball into the area for Di Giuseppe, he can't finish though, that was really a pretty bad miss.

Ipswich 2 : 0 Man Utd

We do expect to win these at home most of the time, but its never easy. It feels good to come through here.

Their keeper is man of the match.

Goals: Di GIuseppe (7.9), Darcy (7.8)
Assists: Connolly 2 (8.1)
Notables: Bogdanovs (7.2), Hayward (7.3), Kirkland (7.7), Aldrovandi (7.2), Smith (7.2)

Neil Gordon struggled today and ended up with a 5.9 rating.


We move up into 3rd place with a win here, 1 point behind Chelsea and tied with Arsenal. Arsenal has a match in hand on us, 5th place Man Utd has 2 matches in hand and 6th place Newcastle has 4 (and is only 4 points behind us).

[Barkeep49]

How has Newcastle gotten 4 games behind everyone else? That's ridiculous.

[Radii]

Originally Posted by Barkeep49

How has Newcastle gotten 4 games behind everyone else? That's ridiculous.

Only 3 behind now as they played the day after our last match. They won the Euro Cup last year and got an extra late August match that no one else got, the Euro Super Cup against the Champions League winner. They're also in the Euro Cup again this year which I'm sure has pushed off a few matches. Perhaps add in an extra re-schedule against someone in the Champions League to explain the difference.

Huddersfield has also played 3 less than everyone else, their explanation is more obvious, they had to play in a qualifying round before the Euro Cup Group Stage that took place right as the regular season was starting, those extra games easily put them behind.

[Radii]

November Update

-- We play on the 3rd, 6th, 20th, 23rd, and 26th. Large international break, 2 weeks off for us.

-- Neil Gordon is reported as having had a poor month in training, his set pieces begin to drop a bit. Our young GK Paul Ralph trained well.

-- Yuri Di Giuseppe wins the player of the month for October! He scored 7 goals in 5 matches on the month.

-- No goal of the month this time, but Di Giuseppe has the #2 and #3 goal of the month in the EPL.

-- The board is very pleased with my leadership. The signing of Garcia Mut is the highlight again, our 3-1 league cup loss to Arsenal is a disappointment. We lost $7.4M last month.


November 3rd, 2027

European Champions Cup Group H

Ipswich (2-1-0, 1st) @ Anderlecht (1-1-1, 3rd)

We're even money favorites going on the road today. We're 3 points ahead of Anderlecth and 2 points ahead of OM. Winning this would basically clinch our advancement out of the group stages, leaving us with only first place to worry about. We beat them 3-1 at home.

GK: Bogdanovs
D: Kirkland/Mattle/Connor/Hayward
M: Ros/Connolly/Mills/Gordon
F: Di Giuseppe/Darcy

A couple guys get to rest today, Mattle hasn't played enough so we get him in, Ros and Mills in for Crespo and Smith. Standard mindset.

4': Darcy finds Di Giuseppe in the penalty area, Di giuseppe with a near point blank shot, a clear cut chance, but he blasts it right at the keeper.

27': An interception in our offensive ends leads to an Anderlecht counter attack, their MR burns Kirkland and makes a long run down the right, a cross goes in, a volley and a goal, we fall behind for the first time in this tournament. 0-1

HALF: We fly to the half after this and will go into the second half looking harder to attack. Really though they got one good counter, we just need to shoot better I think. 7 shots, but just 1 on target. 3 shots for them, and we have a 63/37 possession edge, we pass,tackle and head the ball better. We will come out attacking in the second half.

60': A through ball from Mills to Darcy for a goal... but, he's offsides.

69': Mills to Di Giuseppe, he's 20 yards out, he cuts right, beats his man, shoots from about 18 yards away and scores!! 1-1

78': We play a long ball, their keeper comes out and there's a bit of a scramble for the ball, the keeper does get reset but we recover possession, Connolly to Di Giuseppe, he just turns and fires from 25 yards out and the keeper seems helpless. It looks like everyone was back in position after that scramble for the ball, but I feel like their defense was a bit out of sync on that play. Regardless, we recover nicely and take the lead back! 2-1

93': A throwin in their end, Gordon throws it to Darcy, Darcy lobs the ball into the 6 yard box, Di Giuseppe is there, wins the header over his defender and puts it in!!! 3-1

Anderlecht 1 : 3 Ipswich

Man of the Match: Yuri Di Giuseppe (9.5)
Goals: Di Giuseppe 3
Assists: Darcy (7.3), Connolly (6.9), Mills (6.9)
Notables: Hayward (7.2), Mattle (7.2), Gordon (7.0)


-- We receive $1.148M for our win

-- Bogdanovs praises me in the media for my halftime talk turning the team around.

-- OM beats Zurich 2:0. 2 matches left:

1. Ipswich 3-1-0 - 10 pts
2. OM 2-2-0 - 8 pts
3. Anderlecht 1-1-2 - 4 pts
4. Zurich 0-0-4 - 0 pts

We have a +8 goal differential, Anderlecht is -3. We would have to lose our final two matches, Anderlecht would have to win both and they'd have to make up 11 goals.

[Radii]

-- Chris Bryan resumes full training, he hasn't played in 7+ weeks now.

November 6th, 2027

Ipswich (7-2-2, 3rd) @ Burnley (3-0-8, 16th)

We are massive 2:5 favorites today, Burnley are 13:2 to get a win at their house. They have managed 3 wins this year. Burnley promoted up from the Championship for the first time last year, we haven't played them in nearly a decade (2018 in the Championship). We have never beaten them for what little that's worth, 0-3-3 lifetime.

GK: Bogdanovs
D: Hughes/Aldrovandi/Connor/Jackson
M: Crespo/Jean/Smith/Gordon
F: Di Giuseppe/Constantino

Lots of subs today, in a couple spots to get lesser used players some playing time (hughes/jackson/jean/constantino all a bit underused). We're going to come out attacking on the road, it seems to suit us.

4': Free kick 25 yards out a little left of the goal. He shoots towards the left side and scores! 1-0

7': Constantino ahead to Di Giuseppe, he's 40 yards out, burns one defender way out and sprints into the area, shoots and scores! 2-0

28': We give one back, they get a pass into the area, a good shot from the right side, its blocked by Bogdanovs but the rebound falls to a Burnley player who puts it into the net before Bogdanovs can recover. 2-1

HALF: We shoot 8 times to their 4, 4 on target to their 2. We aren't tackling that well but dominating all other stats. Giving up that goal and letting Burnely in the match sucks, but we're still in a strong spot here.

52': Constantino with a yellow.

58': Hughes with a cross into the area, Constantino wins a header but puts it off the crossbar, the rebound falls to Di Giuseppe who shoots but the keeper is there to save it.

59': Hughes a yellow

62': Di Giuseppe a yellow

68': Heyward in for Jackson. We're going to counterattack and hopefully make sure we don't allow the tying goal here.

72': Aldrovandi a yellow.

77': Darcy in for Constantino

80': Corner for Burnley, taken to the far side of the 6 yard box, they win the header and score.. Bogdanovs basically didn't move at all. 2-2

80': Yeah, attack, hard.

84': smith with a through ball into the area, Neil Gordon is there and he puts it in! Whew. 3-2

88': Mills in for Di Giuseppe, Jean DMC, 4-1-4-1 with Mills at MC and Darcy up front.

94': Mills with a foul about 25 yards out, they earn a corner off the free kick. Gordon clears the corner out of play out near midfield. The game ends shortly after the throwin.

Burnley 2 : 3 Ipswich

Man of the Match: Neil Gordon (8.9)
Goals: Gordon 2, Di Giuseppe (8.3)
Assists: Smith (7.4), Jean (7.4), Constantino (7.3)
Notables: Bogdanovs (7.2)

Jackson a 5.7, I took him out b/c he was struggling so much.

I'd prefer a safer win against a bad team but hey, a road win is a road win.


We move up into 1st after the win. Man Utd beats Chelsea, one of the teams that was above us. Newcastle actually hops up to 2nd with a win themselves. They keep winning and are only 1 point behind us with three less played. Here's how things look at the moment to show how murky things are:


1. Ipswich - 26 pts - 12 played
2. Newcastle - 25 pts - 9 played
3. Man City - 24 pts - 12 played
4. Chelsea - 24 pts - 12 played
5. Arsenal - 23 pts - 11 played
6. Man Utd - 23 pts - 10 played
7. Everton - 19 pts - 12 played
8. Southampton - 19 pts - 12 played
9. Huddersfield - 18 pts - 9 played


So Newcastle is 1 behind with 3 matches in hand. Arsenal is 3 behind us with 1 match in hand. Man Utd is 3 behind us with 2 matches in hand. Huddersfield are 8 behind us but have 3 matches in hand.

With that, we head into a 2 week international break.

[Radii]

-- There is actually another day of games during this 2 week break for us. Man Utd beats Watford, that jumps them up to 2nd place. Hudersfield beats Newcastle. So we're 1st, Man Utd is tied with us with a match in hand, Newcastle is 3rd, still just 1 point back and still with 2 matches

-- heh, stupid international managers. Yuri Di Giuseppe "dropped to Italy Under 21s" to prove himself.... wat? 5 international matches this year, 4 goals, 2 assists, 1 man of the match award, 7.64 rating.

New Youth Signing

16 y/o DL Jurgen Berg will be joining Ipswich from Spanish side Murcia on January 1st. We scouted him out as a 3* "could become a good EPL player. He only cost us $325k and there's lots of room in our U18 team so I figured why not. 15 determination/18 work rate plus solid technical skills for his age (15 marking/14 tackling) made it a pretty easy decision for that price. He's slower than I usually like for anyone but a non-DC (10 pace/10 accel right now) but if that improves a little maybe he'll end up on the senior roster some day.

-- Yuri Di Giuseppe plays in two U21 matches, scoring a goal in one and netting FOUR assists in another.

Injury Update

DC Kieran Connor picked up an injury in an international friendly against Egypt, he's going to miss 3 weeks.

November 20th, 2027

Southampton (5-4-3, 9th) @ Ipswich (8-2-2, 1st)

Southampton are playing above expectations and in the top 10, but they don't get any credit from the bookmakers, we're 1:6 favorites here today, Southampton are 10:1 underdogs. We're 9-5-5 lifetime against them, never losing at home to them in the EPL. Last year we beat them at home and picked up a draw on the road.

GK: Bogdanovs
D: Kirkland/Aldrovandi/Williams/Hayward
M: Ros/Mills/Connolly/Garcia Mut
F: Di Giuseppe/Darcy

Some backups start today, young DC Gareth Williams, ML Ros and MR Garcia Mut is back from a short injury and giving Gordon a day off.

We'll attack at home.

6': A run down the left for their ML, a low pass into the area, shot by MC Blake and they get on the board early... Clive Hayward takes the blame for the goal, he missed a key interception. 0-1

18': A blast from Di Giuseppe from 15 yards out is barely saved by their keeper.

20': Darcy with a run down the right, a cross into the area intended for Di Giuseppe, they get a man to it but his header is doinked off to the side and the ball falls free in the penalty area. Darcy charges in from the right and is first to the ball, he shoots and scores! 1-1

42': Di Giuseppe a free kick from 25 yards out, it hits the side netting bending in from the right, very close.

47': Buildup on offense, Ros has it 25 yards out, passes into the area, Di Giuseppe breaks on the ball, shoots and has a very easy finish after the nice pass. 2-1

HALF: Connolly was hurt towards the end of the first half. I'm bringing Jean in for him now. Stats are all fairly even, we have 7 shots to their 5, 3 on target ot their 1, but we're both passing, heading and tackling equally... average. We're just not playing all that great really, but hopefully we aren't going to be allowing any more goals here.

46': A long ball into the area and their ST Hamilton is there ahead of the defense, huge huge lapse on our part. Bogdanovs rushes out, they get the shot off but Bogdanovs with the clutch block. Whew.

50': Jean is hurt and forced to leave the match immediately. Smith is in.

59': Smith with a nice run through the defense, cross into the 6 yard box, Darcy heads it... the keeper makes a fingertip save, that could have easily been a goal. First corner is headed behind by them. Second corner is cleared out to the side, we get a throwin but no luck.

76': Back into a counterattacking mindset, lets defend a bit more here.

80': Di Giuseppe with a great pass to Darcy in the area, Darcy has a clear cut chance but puts his shot wide left. No excuse at all for a striker to be missing there.

88': Di Giuseppe to Smith, Smith shoots from 20 yards out, its in the right side of the net!! 3-1

92': We push the ball forward but they clear it out to the right, Ros is there, heads it back forward inot the penalty area, Darcy controls it well, beats his man and scores! 4-1

Ipswich 4 : 1 Southampton

It was closer than that most of the way but there you go.

Man of the Match: David Ros (9.0)
Goals: Darcy 2 (8.8), Di Giuseppe (8.5), Smith (7.5)
Assists: Ros, Di Giuseppe
Notables: Bogdanovs (7.3), Kirkland (7.6), Williams (7.1), Aldrovandi (7.4), Mills (7.0)


Apparently two of our goals were unassisted. I thought Ros had two assists there, one of them wasn't credited. Still, a brilliant game from him.

[Radii]

-- Newcastle and Man Utd with a baseball score today (or a LSU/Alabama football game). Newcastle grabs the 6-3 win at home. They remain 1 point behind us with 2matches in hand.


November 23rd, 2027

European Champions Cup Group H

Ipswich (3-1-0, 1st) @ Zurich (0-0-4, 4th)

We're even money favorites on the road today, we just need 1 point to mathematically clinch advancing, though we'd rather just get the win to keep ourselves nicely in first place of course.

GK: Bogdanovs
D: Hughes/Mattle/Williams/Hayward
M: Crespo/Smith/Connolly/Gordon
F: Bryan/Constantino

Some subs here for a match we really should win. The big news today is that Chris Bryan is getting back into the lineup for the first time after 7 weeks of injuries.

We'll attack today.

24': We've taken lots of shots to this point but nothing yet... here Chris Bryan dribbles through 3 players to get to the penalty spot and puts a shot by the keeper! 1-0

32': Connolly with a through ball to Crespo, a clear cut chance but he blasts a shot off the left post. We're in complete control here but need a bigger lead to show for it.

44': Bryan with a run down the right, he tries a pass into the area, its deflected by a defender but its deflected into his own net, its an own goal! The keeper was very close to the ball.. but I guess he was leaning the other way to defend the cross and couldn't get to it. 2-0

HALF: We have 12 shots, they have 4, everything is completely in our favor here.

46': We score 23 seconds into the half, Smith to Bryan for a goal! 3-0

49': A free kick out left for Zurich, nearly a corner really. Its taken to the far post, a header and goal for Zurich. 3-1

58': Hayward with a yellow.

68': Mills in for Connolly

85': Bryan to Crespo for a very easy goal. We could be up 8-1 here but hey, we'll take the 4 goals we have. 4-1

92': Crespo is hurt and forced to leave the match, literally seconds before the final whistle. Ros is in.

Zurich 1 : 4 Ipswich

Man of the Match: Chris Bryan (9.3)
Goals: Bryan 2, Crespo (8.0), own goal Zurich
Assists: Smith 2 (8.3), Bryan
Notables: Hayward (7.2), Hughes (7.3), Williams (7.0), Mattle (7.4), Gordon (7.2)

Our young kid Williams with a 7.0 on the defensive line today!

-- We receive $1.148M for winning here.

Injury Update

Juan Pablo Crespo turns his ankle badly at the end of hte match today and he's going to miss 4 weeks. Ros and Hughes will get loads of playing time.


Ipswich Qualify for First Knockout Round -- We've mathematically clinched advancement into the knockout rounds of the Champions League


-- OM crushes Anderlecht 5:0 unfortunately.

1. Ipswich 4-1-0 - 13 pts
2. OM 3-2-0 - 11 pts
3. Anderlecht 1-1-3 - 4 pts
4. Zurich 0-0-5 - 0 pts

We play at home vs OM in the final match of the group stage in about 2 1/2 weeks. If we win or tie we win the group. OM needs to beat us to advance.

[JonInMiddleGA]

FWIW, I think I'm going to point my son to this thread as a means of introducing him to not only the depth of FM but also as a way for him to kind of understand the thought process that goes into building a club.

At nearly 14 - with a fair history of gaming on the tabletop & the p.c. and extensive console experience - I think FM is probably a logical step in his gaming development.

Either that or he's going to decide I'm completely nuts

[Radii]

-- Newcastle wins a makeup game vs Exeter and takes over 1st place, two points ahead of us with 1 match in hand.


November 26th, 2027

Ipswich (9-2-2, 2nd) @ QPR (3-5-5, 14th)

We're 4:7 favorites on the road today. 10-7-4 lifetime against QPR. We haven't lost to them the last 7 times we've played.

GK: Bogdanovs
D: Kirkland/Aldrovandi/Mattle/Hayward
M: Ros/Smith/Connolly/Garcia Mut
F: Di Giuseppe/Darcy

Lets attack on the road today.

19': We build up on offense, Garcia Mut has the ball deep in their end, passes back to Hayward, Hayward a cross into the 6 yard box, Di Giuseppe heads it, goal!!! 1-0

23': Smith with a clear cut chance after just walking through the defense into the area, but his shot is pretty weak and saved.

32': They win the ball from Di GIuseppe after a throwin, a long ball goes to their ST Kay and he's behind the defense, makes a run into the area, but Bogdanovs blocks his shot, good save!

43': A backpass from Connolly to Mattle... its awful, really awful, and their ST Kay pounces on the mistake, steals the pass, runs into the area and scores. Connolly takes the blame there, not Mattle. 1-1

HALF: Two massive slip ups on our end give them great chances. We shoot 10 times, 4 on target. They have 4 shots, 2 on target. 57/43 possession edge and dominance in passing/tackling/heading all three. We'll keep attacking.

65': We build up on offense but can't get a good shot off, once again after an interception there's a long ball to one of their strikers, he gets behind our D and scores... this is becoming a major problem.. 1-2

69': Gordon and Bryan in for Garcia Mut and Constantino

75': Wowowowow. Mattle just gets owned in the back, he's beaten badly for their 3rd goal. 1-3

85': Smith to Di Giuseppe who beats his man badly 25 yards out, makes a run into the area and scores. We've got a chance still. 2-3

87': Di Giuseppe is hurt.

94': Goal kick for them, i fear the game is getting called the second after the kick, but no. We win the ball, Connolly ahead to Smith and there's a HUGE hole in the defense, he gets into the area, its a clear cut chance... but the keeper makes the save. We can't convert the corner and now the whistle is blown.

QPR 3 : 2 Ipswich

Man of the Match: Yuri Di Giuseppe (8.8)
Goals: Di Giuseppe 2
Assists: Hayward (7.0), Smith (6.7)


QPR counterattacked very well today, perhaps we pushed too hard, we really handled their long balls incredibly poorly.

[Radii]

Originally Posted by JonInMiddleGA

FWIW, I think I'm going to point my son to this thread as a means of introducing him to not only the depth of FM but also as a way for him to kind of understand the thought process that goes into building a club.

At nearly 14 - with a fair history of gaming on the tabletop & the p.c. and extensive console experience - I think FM is probably a logical step in his gaming development.

Either that or he's going to decide I'm completely nuts

Wow, that's seriously high praise, very awesome

I would have *loved* a game like FM at that age and would have dove in completely I think. Like many of us here, I loved dice games and tabletop games and games like microleague on the PC that were stats based, I always craved more (and filled notebooks trying to create more, recording stats that the games weren't capable of at the time).

Hopefully he gets into it! If you haven't check out the video games thread (or is the FM thread, I forget tbh), FM12 is on sale for like $6 on amazon right now.

[JonInMiddleGA]

If you haven't check out the video games thread (or is the FM thread, I forget tbh), FM12 is on sale for like $6 on amazon right now.

Hence the reason for my post tonight

Even having already played stuff like Hearts of Iron and Victoria, as well as TEW, I could tell that he was pretty taken aback by the demo to say the least. Plus he knows virtually no soccer beyond the most very basic stuff, so that's even more intimidating (same as it can be for us big kids).

I could tell he wasn't quite getting how the depth could become manageable and how it all fit together, so I thought seeing the evolution of a club might help him get a better grasp of the truly epic nature of FM ... which brought this thread to mind p.d.q.

[Radii]

FA Cup Third Round Draw

We're going to travel to Tottenham, they're struggling in the EPL this year, but still, a road EPL match in our first cup game is pretty tough with lots of L1 and Championship sides still around.


December Update

-- We play on the 4th, 8th, 11th, 14th, 19th, 26th and 28th. We play OM in the Champions League on the 8th, everything else are league matches. @Aston Villa, @Chelsea, vs Newcastle, @Liverpool, @Arsenal... that's our last 5 matches this month.

-- Yuri Di Giuseppe wins the EPL Player of the month award!

-- David Ros is 3rd in the Young Player of the Month voting in the EPL this month, way to go kid!

-- Once again Yuri Di Giuseppe scores two of the 3 best goals of the month in the EPL. #2 and #3 this time. With 4 months of awards and the top 3 goals awarded each month, 12 goals have been singled out this EPL season... 7 of the 12 are from Yuri Di Giuseppe.

-- The board is very pleased with my leadership. The signing of Ruben Garcia Mut is the highlight (still?), our league cup loss to Arsenal the only disappointment. We lost $6.3M last month.

-- In a coaches meeting we're informed that Constantino and Gordon are both degrading a bit. Constantino's acceleration and agility are both down (still 16 and 15). Gordon's pace is down to 12.

Injury Update

DC Pablo Olvera is out 3-4 weeks with a back injury picked up in weight training.

December 4th, 2027

Watford (2-3-9, 18th) @ Ipswich (9-2-3, 3rd)

We're massive 1:6 favorites here and need to take care of business at home.

GK: Bogdanovs
D: Hughes/Williams/Mattle/Heywood
M: Ros/Jean/Mills/Gordon
F: Di Giuseppe/Constantino

We use a lot of backups in this one. We'll attack.

19': Hm, same issue as with QPR.. we miss a couple early opportunities and they get a counterattacking long ball, we are all of a sudden really susceptible to this attack. 0-1

26': Jean to Di Giuseppe for a very easy goal. 1-1

44': We get a counterattack here, winning a ball in their end, sent to midfield for Constantino, he controls it well and dribbles ahead, passing to Di Giuseppe, he's 30 yards out, beats a defender, gets into the area and scores! 2-1

HALF: We give up the one counterattacking goal but Di Giuseppe's 2 goals have us in the lead. We shoot 6 times to their 2. They are actually tackling and heading way way better than us. We drop back to a standard mindset for the second half.

47': Gordon with a pass into the area for Ros, Ros is brought down and its a penalty! Di Giuseppe takes the PK and buries it! 3-1

56': Another counterattack for us, a long ball to Di Giuseppe, he heads it down to Constantino, gets it back, makes a run into the area and scores his 4th goal! 4-1

82': Garcia Mut in for Gordon, Jackson in for Heywood.


Ipswich 4 : 1 Watford

Man of the Match: Yuri Di Giuseppe (9.8)
Goals: Di Giuseppe 4
Assists: Constantino 2 (8.2), Jean (7.3), Ros (7.4)
Notables: Heywood (7.0), Hughes (7.0), Mattle (7.1), Mills (7.3), Jean (7.3)

[Radii]

-- Connor resumes full training after being hurt for 3 weeks.

-- Southampton beats newcastle, Arsenal plays Man U to a 0:0 draw and we take over 1st again, but we still have 1 more match played than 3 other teams within 3 points of us (Newcastle, Arsenal and Huddersfield).

December 8th, 2027

European Champions Cup Group H

OM (3-2-0, 2nd) @ Ipswich (4-1-0, 1st)

We're slim 5:4 favorites at home. This is the last group stage match and we hold a 2 point lead over OM. A draw wins us the group.

GK: Bogdanovs
D: Kirkland/Aldrovandi/Mattle/Hayward
M: Hughes/Smith/Connolly/Gordon
F: Di Giuseppe/Darcy

Counterattacking mindset here today.

1': a 32 second goal by Darcy is wiped out due to an offsides call, boo! Darcy is very upset about the call and picks up a yellow card.

17': They have a corner, its headed out and Darcy recovers the ball. Darcy lays it back for Gordon, Gordon plays a long ball ahead to Di Giuseppe, he's got a step on his man, gets into the area, shoots and scores! 1-0

24': Gordon a yellow

HALF: They shoot 7 times to our 5, but only put 2 on target (compared to 4 for us). We hold a 54/46 possession edge and lead in every statistical category. Both teams are taking too many shots from long range and we'll use the "work ball into box" instruction for the second half.

70': Jean in for Di Giuseppe, back to a 4-1-4-1 for the rest of the match. Garcia Mut in for Gordon.

We hold our lead easily!

Ipswich 1 : 0 OM

They shoot 12 times but only put 3 on target, and take 10 of those shots from long range. still, that's enough for our keeper to earn man of the match somehow.

Man of the Match: Dmitrijs Bogdanovs (7.5)
Goal: Di Giuseppe (7.1)
Assist: Gordon (6.9)
Notables: Hayward (7.2), Kirkland (7.2), Connolly (7.0), Smith (7.0)


-- We receive $1.148M for winning this match.


Final Group Standings:

1. Ipswich 5-1-0 - 16 pts
2. OM 3-2-1 - 11 pts
3. Anderlecht - 2-1-3 - 7 pts
4. Zurich - 0-0-6 - 0 pts

Elsewhere, defending champs Atletico Madrid fail to make it out of the group stage, finishing 3rd behind Ajax and Stuttgart. Dutch side FC Twente keeps La Liga's Betis out of the knockout rounds as well.

[Radii]

December 11th, 2027

Ipswich (10-2-3, 1st) @ Aston Villa (4-2-9, 16th)

We're big 4:6 favorites on the road today against an Aston Villa team that are struggling this year. We're 6-6-8 lifetime against Aston Villa. We haven't lost to them in our last 5 meetings including a 1:0 road win last year.

GK: Bogdanovs
D: Kirkland/Aldrovandi/Connor/Hayward
M: Ros/Smith/Mills/Garcia Mut
F: Di Giuseppe/Bryan

Darcy has been playing spectacularly, which is the only reaosn I haven't forced Chris Bryan into more playing time at this point. Bryan gets the start today though. Connor is back in for the first time since his injury a few weeks ago. Standard mindset today.

27': After watching a couple shots off target Aston Villa get a dangerous shot in the area but Bogdanovs is able to make the save.

41': kirkland is hurt, but can stay in for now.

HALF: Boring! We shoot 6 times to their 5, 2 on target for them, just 1 for us. Bryan has been bad today with a 5.8 rating, we'll give him a little time in the second half to improve.

48': They get the ball into the penalty area, Hayward forces his man to go out wide, but then goes for a tackle... and a penalty is given. They score on the penalty. 0-1

67': We're going to attack, Darcy in for Bryan.

72': Hayward controls it in our offensive end, passes to Mills, Mills into the area for Darcy, they have a man miss a pretty clear interception on the pass, Darcy controls it well and scores! 1-1

81': Darcy and Garcia Mut with a give and go, Darcy gets the ball back at the penalty spot and has a clear cut chance... but his shot hits the left post.

87': Mills with a ball into the right side of the area for Garcia Mut, our 2nd clear cut chance... but saved.

87': Connolly in for Smith.

Aston Villa 1 : 1 Ipswich

Man of the Match: Steven Mills (7.4)
Goal: Darcy (7.2)
Assist: Mills
Notables: Connor (7.1)

Hayward with a horrible 4.6 rating after giving up a penalty, Aldrovandi a 5.7, Garcia Mut a 5.9. Some ugly performances out there today and we'll take a draw on the road I guess!


Burnley beats Arsenal and QPR plays Newcastle to a draw, we stay in first.


Injury Update

Kirkland will miss about a week with a bruised shin

[Barkeep49]

A 4.6? Wow! Are you going to fine/warn about that performance? I've never had an EPL rating that low and I remember you doing something like that with Woking.

[Radii]

December 14th, 2027

Ipswich (10-3-3, 1st) @ Chelsea (9-4-3, 5th)

If you're doing the math looking at those records, you'll notice that we are only 2 points ahead of Chelsea, we're 1st, they're 5th, the standings are very very close at the top. We're 6:4 favorites, they're 13:8. We're 8-4-11 lifetime against Chelsea, last year in league play the road team won each meeting. Before that though the home team had won the last 7 straight meetings. Not a lot of draws in the Ipswich/Chelsea series.

GK: Bogdanovs
D: Hughes/Aldrovandi/Connor/Hayward
M: Ros/Smith/Connolly/Gordon
F: Di Giuseppe/Darcy

Kirkland and Crespo are hurt, Hughes and Ros is about all we've got on the left side right now. We're counterattacking today.

24': Smith steals a ball in the midfield from one of their back line, he passes up to Di Giuseppe, he makes a run down the left, he gets a shot and its considered a clear cut chance but its from a tough angle, and he ends up hitting the left post with his shot.

31': Darcy is hurt going up for a header... its actually not an injury but his fitness took a huge hit.

38': Free kick from just outside the area for Chelsea, there's a shot and Bogdanovs makes a solid diving save, actually holding onto the ball and not allowing a corner or rebound.

HALF: Chelsea ends up with 9 shots, around hte 30 minute mark they only had 4, I didn't see most of the later ones. We shoot 3 times only, but we do control 55% of the possession. From a highlight perspective its been a pretty boring match. 6 of Chelsea's shots from long range.

57': Bryan in for Darcy.

65': A dangerous cross in from Gordon but the keeper punches it away, it looked like that was going to be a header at the far post for a goal. Corner goes nowhere.

67': We get a free kick inches outside the penalty area, Gordon takes it but blasts it off the wall, corner for us. It goes nowhere though.

70': Jean in for Smith

77': Their striker Thomas jukes by Connor and gets the first clear cut chance for Chelsea, but its an awful shot, weak and right at Bogdanovs.

That's it.

Chelsea 0 : 0 Ipswich

Man of the Match: Neil Gordon (8.0)
Notables: Bogdanovs (7.0), Hughes (7.4), Connor (7.1), Aldrovandi (7.1)

Ros struggles with a 6.1, Di Giuseppe a rare goalless game and a 6.3 rating.

Boring game, its always tempting for me to say "ok, Chelsea can't do anything, go attack!" but I stayed patient in this one to happily take the draw on the road against one of the best teams in the league.

[Radii]

Originally Posted by Barkeep49

A 4.6? Wow! Are you going to fine/warn about that performance? I've never had an EPL rating that low and I remember you doing something like that with Woking.

I always forget about that as an option, I'll assume he feels like a jackass for giving up a key penalty and will recover on his own, this time at least. He put up an ok 6.9 rating against Chelsea.

[Radii]

Champions League First Knockout Round Draw

Chelsea vs Barcelona
Cagliari vs Olympique Lyonnais
Paris Saint-Germain vs FC Twente
OM vs Arsenal
Benfica vs Ipswich
Stuttgart vs Man City
Inter vs Celtic
Genoa vs Ajax

Benfica is the most successful team in Portugal, winning the league 8 of the last 10 years. They've been in the Champions League every season of this dynasty. They made the semifinals in 2018 and finals in 2014. Those are the only two years they've made it past this first knockout stage. Not a gimme but we'll be favored for sure.